[Levels of anti-nDNA using immunofluorescence on Crithidia luciliae. II. Prognostic value of complement-fixing anti-nDNA. Longitudinal study of 16 lupus disorders].

Measurements of the hemolytic complement level and titrations of anti dS DNA antibodies by immunofluorescence using Crithidia luciliae and by the Farr binding assay were performed in 13 females and 3 males suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In each patient, 2 to 5 serum samples were analyzed during a mean follow up time of 16.6 months.

[Determination of anti dsDNA antibodies by immunofluorescence using Crithidia luciliae. I--Diagnostic and prognostic value in systemic lupus erythematosus. Comparison with the Farr radioimmunoassay].

Antibodies to double stranded (ds) DNA were sought by the indirect immunofluorescence method using Crithidia luciliae in 196 sera from patients suffering from hepatic, thyroid or inflammatory rheumatic disorders. Anti ds DNA antibodies were demonstrated in 29 out of 45 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) sera. Lower titers were found in 3 out of 7 sera from drug-induced SLE, 2 out of 6 from mixed connective tissue diseases, 1 out of 60 from scleroderma, 2 from unclassified arthritis, 8 out of 40 from rheumatoid arthritis with antinuclear factors, and in 4 out of 15 sera from chronic hepatitis.

[Anti-collagen antibodies. Their detection in rheumatoid polyarthritis, chronic atrophic polychondritis and various chronic inflammatory rheumatism].

The authors administered by passive haemagglutination, natural or denatured type I and II anticollagen antibodies in the serum of 83 rheumatoid polyarthritis, 20 ankylosing spondylarthritis, 30 relapsing polychondritis, 13 diffuse sclerodermics, 12 Gougerot-Sjögren syndrome patients. Type II natural anti-collagen antibodies are common in relapsing polychondritis (37 percent). They are rarer in rheumatoid polyarthritis (15 percent) and the frequency is identical to that found in patients suffering from gonarthrosis and coxarthrosis.

Relapsing polychondritis - pathogenic role of anti-native collagen type II antibodies. A case report with immunological and pathological studies.

A patient with relapsing polychondritis and Sjogren's syndrome is reported. Diagnosis was confirmed by ear cartilage biopsy. Antibodies against rat costal cartilage were present in the patient's serum.

[Antinuclear antibodies: immunological characteristics and clinical significance].

Fifty sera containing antinucleolar antibodies were o gathered in a routine laboratory during testing for antinuclear antibodies with indirect immun-fluorescence over a five-year period. The patients involved were suffering from sclerodermia (13 cases), rheumatoid arthritis (7 cases), polymyositis (3 cases), lupus (2 cases), various rhumatismal disease (59 cases) and non rhumatismal diseases in 16 cases, including 5 malignant diseases. In 80 per cent of the cases nucleolar fluorescence was combined with nuclear fluorescence of another type.